For many years the manner in which dentists have worked, and their cabinet requirements, remained very much the same. More recently, however, there have been efforts to arrange a dentist's work area to be more efficient; also, in arranging this efficiency there has been greater and greater use of assistants. Due to this use of assistants, the work area for the dentist must of course provide for efficiency for both the dentist and the dentist's assistant.
There have arisen two primary styles of dentistry utilizing assistants, these being known generally as the Alabama Method and the North Carolina Method. In both these methods, the technique utilizes a utility cabinet at which the assistant sits, the cabinet being immediately adjacent to the dentist. The cabinet becomes an integral part of the total work arrangement so that it is extremely important to have a well built and well designed cabinet.
In cabinets for both the Alabama Method and the North Carolina Method, one of the necessary features is a movable top for the cabinet, the top being movable to a closed position in which the cabinet is generally out of service, and to a shifted, or functional, position. Since, in the closed position, the cabinet is frequently being moved from one location to another it is rather important that the top be reasonably well secured in such position; further, when the cabinet is in its functional position, the assistant utilizes the top of the cabinet as a work counter so that it is extremely important that the top be reasonably well secured in this position.
Since one of the objects to be achieved is maximum efficiency, it is also important that the waste receptacle be conveniently placed with respect to the cabinet, and it is now conventional in the prior art to have a waste receptacle fixed to the side of the cabinet.
In the past, the latches for the tops of the cabinets have been sufficiently insecure that, when a technician was attempting to stir or mix in the course of the normal duties, the top of the cabinet tended to latch and unlatch. This allowed the top to shake, and become a great disturbance to the technician rather than an assistance to the technician. Also, the waste receptacle has been fixed on the side of the cabinet in a convenient location; but, the brackets by which the receptacle has been fixed to the side of the cabinet have been rather complex, and frequently require two hands to fix the receptacle to the cabinet. This is highly undesirable since the technician may wish to empty the waste receptacle without completely letting go of the work being done.
In using the Alabama Method, some dentists utilize an arm rest to brace themselves to remain steady while working on a patient. While the arm rest should always be movable so any given dentist can achieve maximum comfort for his particular working technique, the arm rest should not be so easily movable as to be moved inadvertently, or to wave back and forth during transportation of the cabinet.